Dm800 is badly designed

[Fano]

For a receiver costly the bones of £300 (original) ,it has to be said that the Dm800 is getting on my nerves.
It has a number of design flaws ,mostly due to the receiver being too small.
Tonight I installed an internal 2.5 inch hard drive .To say it was a difficult task was an understatement.
Fitting it in was a bigger dilemma that working out how Jacobs get the figs into the fig rolls.It was like putting an elephant into a phone booth.
Seriously bad design .
I managed to get it in after a few hours of sweat and alot of foul language.
Could Dream Multimedia not have made the case a few inches wider ?
The usb ports on the rear are too close to each other ,I was struggling to fit my wlan stick and flash drive in.
In the end I had to buy a new microsd card and reader .
The USB ports are too close to the scart connector meaning I cant use certain flash drives .
The ethernet connector is too close to the usb ports too,its partially blocked unless you use narrow drives.
The power connector is too close to the scart lead ,the scart must be removed to plug the power connector in /out.
Its a shockingly badly designed rear panel .
If they made the box 1 inch wider they could remedy all the faults,its a joke that these faults made it past the development stage .
I almost put my foot through it this evening !

 

[CrazyFool]

yes mate,
it is and its all because they tried to make it small!

the biggest and greatest flaw is the position of the cpu.
i was shocked when i saw it, literally half of it is covered by the tuner,

DM are trying to adhere to these new breed of tiny recievers.
until a couple of weeks ago, the only linux box that i had played with was a dbox2 and was awe struck when i picked up the dm500.

 

[gsmtech]

Cant say I had any issues installing the hard disk on my'n, it's a bit tight in there, but if you remove the hard drive caddy from the box 1st by opening the 2 screws fit the drive to the caddy then renistall it it's not too bad, 10 -15 minutes max.

The USB ports to the reat are a bit close together not had any problems with Wifi dongles, or any of the USB drives I own, but possibly some of the larger old chunky USB keys might have an issue.

I use the DVI to HDMI have never had to use the SCART socket..

Yuip a slightly larger chassis with a bit of thoght to betetr airflow and cooling would have made more sense.

 

[Fano]

Cant say I had any issues installing the hard disk on my'n, it's a bit tight in there, but if you remove the hard drive caddy from the box 1st by opening the 2 screws fit the drive to the caddy then renistall it it's not too bad, 10 -15 minutes max.

My main issue is connecting the hard drive to the mainboard via the sata cable.
You get a big long thick sata cable ,its way too long for the job.
The back of the hard drive is very close to the tuner and the fan is just below it so its a bitch of a job to fit the sata cable on .
I had to bend the cable and twist it back on itself to flatten it out and fit it in.
Of course thats not ideal and it also blocks alot of space that is needed for airflow in the case.
I'm still not happy with it to be honest.

yes mate,
it is and its all because they tried to make it small!
the biggest and greatest flaw is the position of the cpu.
i was shocked when i saw it, literally half of it is covered by the tuner,

Yes thats a serious boo boo placing the tuner over the cpu .
These receivers are meant to be professional designs ,but from what I can see they look more like a prototype than anything else,there are serious design flaws.
It might be of some use in the cold weather it can heat the room for me .

 

[gsmtech]

The internal fans are poor quality, as well bearings get noisy very quickly. I removed my Fan because of bearing noise, oiled it 1st didnt last long..

Now using a cheap laptop cooler which the box sits on, 1 quid from poundland, powered by USB on the box. That does a beter job of cooling.

Ideally you need a higher quality fan mounted in the box, maybe attached to the lid, to extract hot air while a laptoop cooler underneath blows in cold air.
Would also be good if the fans switched off when box is in standby. Im not getting any cooling issues as such, but the box does get warm.

Im surprised Ferarri clones dont have any internal fans they defintely need them on 800HD's

some clones have a thick splodge of thermal adhesive as well...would be better for a thinner even coat of good quality stuff like Arctic sliver ceramic adhesive to be used.

 

[The Dentist]

My next dm800 is coming with a larger case and air vents ready made from the manufacturer roud:

 

[goose68]

My next dm800 is coming with a larger case and air vents ready made from the manufacturer roud:

Yeah, and i bet the 800se still gets mad hot.

 

[The Dentist]

Yeah, and i bet the 800se still gets mad hot.

Theres no fun in just getting it all plug and play.

gotta tinker till you get bored and then some lol. pipes going in and out, nas drives attached and networked bits and bobs thats that what its all about.
I even got a DM500 (clone) recording without a HDD, onto a DM600 (dunno if its clone or orig dont really care, if it goes wrong it gives me something else to fix).

 

[Bilals]

Dont want to go of topic guys but get a vu+duo no messing about great box plenty of room in there to fit a few hard drives lol its a bit pricey around 340 but you will not regret. I have never had a dm800 i was told to jump striat to the vu+duo.

 

[handogin]

The internal fans are poor quality, as well bearings get noisy very quickly. I removed my Fan because of bearing noise, oiled it 1st didnt last long..

Now using a cheap laptop cooler which the box sits on, 1 quid from poundland, powered by USB on the box. That does a beter job of cooling.

Ideally you need a higher quality fan mounted in the box, maybe attached to the lid, to extract hot air while a laptoop cooler underneath blows in cold air.
Would also be good if the fans switched off when box is in standby. Im not getting any cooling issues as such, but the box does get warm.

With the poundland cooler
Cut the usb off the fan.
Find an old scart lead and break it open.
Pin 8 is + and pin 21 is - (pin 21 is on the side of the scart lead)
Connect the + from the fan to pin 8 on the scart and the - from the fan to pin 21 on the scart ( I left about 3" of wire on the scart and soldered it on).
Plug into the back of the dm800 and bingo ...off and on when needed

Hope this helps


Hando